FOAM-TECH’s Position on the Environment

Energy Conservation

Decisions about insulation are among the most important you will make relative to the environmental impact of buildings. Because insulation reduces energy consumption, it provides environmental benefits throughout a building's life. More energy can be saved by conservation than by improving the efficiency of heating systems. FOAM-TECH has been dedicated to energy conservation since its beginning in 1982. Utilizing the best quality insulation systems which incorporate air sealing and vapor control allow us to provide the most energy efficient building envelopes. Advanced technology provides a rigorous quality assurance program to maximize the energy performance of our installations. We have also been involved in work on alternative fuel, low-emission vehicles, and we are dedicated to reducing waste, greenhouse gases, and fossil-fuel by-product generation.

Green Products

FOAM-TECH is committed to providing the most energy efficient and environmentally conscious products and installations possible. While the polyurethane industry as a whole has gone the route of replacing the CFC-11 with HCFCs, only FOAM-TECH has moved to introduce (1993) the first field-applied, closed-cell foam with a non-ozone-depleting hydro-fluoro-carbon (HFC). SUPERGREEN FOAM uses HFC-134a as the foaming agent. This product is available for both spray and cavity-fill applications.

FOAM-TECH was also among the first installers of Sealection 500 which uses a mixture of carbon dioxide and water as the foaming agent for this open-cell product. This material completely eliminates polyurethane's HCFC-related environmental impact, but it has a lower R-value. Like closed-cell polyurethane, Sealection 500 is foamed into wall cavities, but the resultant open-cell foam is soft, not rigid. Its advantage over loose-fill insulation is its air-sealing characteristics. This product can also be injected into closed cavities.

This combination of environmentally safe products allows us to provide
"green" products for any type of building envelope application.

Recycling

The polyurethane foam insulation industry uses recycled material in its
products. The Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA)
says that almost all products today meet the EPA procurement guidelines for
federally funded buildings, which call for a minimum 9% recycled content.
Rather than using recycled foam, however, most foam manufacturers buy polyol
chemical components with recycled content. The industry used some 20 to 30
million pounds of recycled post-consumer chemicals in 1993, according to
Jared Blum of PIMA. In fact, according to the AIA Environmental Resource
Guide, the industry is one of the largest markets for mixed-color recycled
PET beverage containers, which have traditionally been difficult to
recycle. In addition, about half of the raw materials used in producing the
polyurethane foam are sustainable organic resources (usually sugar based). Our
commitment to material conservation and recycling extends throughout our
operations.

FOAM-TECH used to use as many as six steel 55-gallon drums (containers)
of material per day in our energy conservation processes, amounting to
between 600 and 700 drums per year. While the steel can be recycled, we
consider cleaning out the drums, stockpiling them, transporting them, and
even the recycling process to be a waste of resources that can be avoided.
Our goal as a company that uses and advocates green, sustainable, and
energy-efficient products is to eliminate any components of our total
business process that generate waste or unnecessary energy use.

To address this issue, we have built a fleet of permanent refillable
containers (tanks or vessels). When empty, they are returned to the
supplier to be refilled. By replacing disposable drums with refillable
containers, we save over 15 tons of steel per year and over 3000 pounds of
unusable product (residue).

Our study shows that this is a cost-effective program because we have
eliminated using disposable 55-gallon drums, the waste of the unusable
material, and the cost of cleaning and recycling the steel. For these
efforts, FOAM-TECH was awarded a waste-reduction program grant by the
Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation for our commitment to the
environment.

Another recycling issue for the construction industry is what to do with
leftover waste from the building process. Our approach is to avoid having to
recycle waste material by working with our clients to plan projects to
prevent overfilling, thus reducing trimming waste and disposal costs.
Because our foam product is installed directly into the building, there are
no cut-offs or trimmings from non-standard bay sizes and shapes. Matching
foam system R-values to fit into framing sizes can virtually eliminate
overfilling, trimming and related waste.

Health and Toxicity

Polyurethane foams are safe, having very low levels of emissions. There are
no formaldehydes in urethanes. The
American Medical Association has
sponsored tests of urethanes and given them a clean bill of health. Some
individuals have acute chemical sensitivity to the very small quantities of
chemicals that off-gas from nearly all common insulation materials. The
binders used in conventional batt insulation, inks from the recycled
newspaper in cellulose, and VOCs released from foam insulation are examples
of such off-gassing. We work with clients who have these high-level
sensitivities to all types of chemicals and have developed a system of
construction detailing that takes advantage of foam's superior air sealing
capabilities to prevent migration of chemicals from all standard building
materials into the living spaces.

Indoor Air Quality

Though indoor air quality issues are different from environmental issues,
they are related and should be considered at the same time. Concern about
the health effects of insulation materials dates back to the 1970s, when
improperly installed urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) caused high
levels of formaldehyde emissions in tens of thousands of homes. No
insulation materials in use today exhibit indoor air quality problems
approaching those of UFFI, but the rapidly growing interest in healthy homes
is spurring a close examination of health impacts.

Some argue that the fibers released from fiberglass insulation may be
carcinogenic, like asbestos. A number of recent technical articles about
the carcinogenicity of glass fibers has been damaging to the image of the
fiberglass industry, as has the requirement for cancer warning labels.
While polyurethane foam has been proven for over 50 years of use to be safe, the
most important factor for indoor air quality may be its ability to prevent
mold and mildew growth in building cavities and on interior surfaces. The
moisture and air leakage control advantages of foam are key factors in
preventing condensation which supports mold and mildew growth and subsequent
indoor air quality problems. Foam insulation doesn't provide nesting
material, and air-tight buildings don't invite vermin to enter.

Durability

Durability of building materials, including insulation, is a very
important environmental consideration. Clearly, more durable materials are
environmentally superior to less durable ones. Most insulation materials
will perform very well over lifetimes measured in decades or even
centuries. There are exceptions, however, and various factors affect
performance over time.
The most significant, long-term performance concern with cellulose
insulation is possible loss of fire-retardant chemicals. Because borates are
water soluble, they can leach out if the insulation gets wet. Some people
claim that those chemicals gradually disappear even if the material does not
get wet, though these claims have not been substantiated. According to Dan
Lea of CIMA, there is a shift within the industry toward ammonium sulfate
fire retardants, which actually improve in fire retardancy performance over
time. A concern with ammonium sulfate, however, is corrosion of metals in
contact with the insulation, particularly with wet-spray applications.

Other concerns with loose-fill fiber insulation are settling,
displacement as a result of wind, and infestations of rodents. It is also
possible that, over many decades, dust and dirt accumulation could reduce
the R-value--either by compressing the insulation or by filling air pockets.

Insulation materials that rely on reflectivity for their thermal
performance are prone to reduced performance as accumulating dust reduces
the reflectivity. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has published a number of
studies on impact of dust on radiant barrier performance.

Polyurethane foams are the most durable insulation material. Foams are not
soluble, they bond to substrates, and they are often used as structural
components in structural panels and other building systems. Rigid foam
insulation materials that are produced using low-conductivity blowing agents
(HCFCs) can be prone to R-value drift as the blowing agents leak out of the
cell structure and air leaks in. Most foams come from the factory with an
insulating value over R-8 per inch, but that may drop as low as R-5.6,
according to some estimates. "Aged R-values" are insulation values that
predict R-value drift. These published test values vary from product to
product depending on density, "skin" effects, the substrate material, the
application, and installation practices. Reductions in R-value may take
from several years to a century or more. Aged R-values should always be used
in planning thermal envelopes.

Embodied Energy

It surprises a lot of people to learn that a state-of-the-art,
energy-efficient, passive-solar house built today may consume less heating
and cooling energy over 30 or even 50 years of operation than was required
to build it. This means that if our society wants to continue the
impressive gains that have been made over the past 20 years in reducing
energy use, we will need to focus attention on embodied energy as well as
operating energy. While the embodied energy of insulation materials is
usually quite low compared with the energy a given amount of insulation will
save over its lifetime, it is nonetheless important.

Embodied energy is the energy required to produce and transport
materials. If two insulation materials insulate equally well and other
manufacturing impacts are comparable, the one with lower embodied energy is
environmentally preferable. The key here is "insulate equally well".
Insulation value should not be measured by laboratory tests. Real-world
performance is the only accurate measure of insulation value. Air sealing,
extreme temperatures, and high wind conditions can significantly reduce batt
insulation performance. When the performance of the thermal envelope as a
complete system is factored into the equation, high-performance materials,
like polyurethane foams, are on a par with other insulating materials in regards
to environmental payback.